In the height of summer, Ya'an delivered another landmark ecological story. On July 30, 2026, CCTV's "Eastern Horizon" (《东方时空》) featured a report titled "Sichuan Ya'an: At 4,120 Meters, the Giant Panda 'Climbs' into the Snow Leopard's Domain," spotlighting the Sichuan Baoxing Fengtongzhai National Nature Reserve — where infrared cameras set up on alpine scree slopes at 4,120 meters above sea level captured the first-ever footage of a wild giant panda roaming alongside snow leopards. The discovery confirms habitat overlap between two flagship species and demonstrates the integrity of the vertical ecological corridor within the Giant Panda National Park's Ya'an sector.

**CCTV Spotlight: 4,120m Infrared Camera Reveals "Panda Summit"**

According to the Fengtongzhai National Nature Reserve Management Center, staff retrieving data from an infrared camera deployed in the Hongshanding Triangle Peak area — at 4,120 meters on alpine scree slopes — recorded the first-ever clear footage of a wild giant panda. The camera site has long captured frequent snow leopard patrols and serves as a core habitat for alpine species such as the snow leopard and blue sheep; wild giant pandas had never been documented here before. The breakthrough of "one camera, two flagship species" was hailed by CCTV as "a vivid snapshot of conservation effectiveness in the Giant Panda National Park." China News Service, The Paper (Pengpai), and Upstream Finance (Shangyou Caijing) all followed up with synchronized coverage, driving sustained nationwide attention.

**A Complete Ecological Corridor: Ya'an Safeguards Every Stage of the Panda Life Cycle**

As the world's first scientific discovery site, naming site, and type-specimen origin of the giant panda, Ya'an hosts 4,821.96 km² of giant panda habitat — 20.93% of China's total. Some 52% of Sichuan's core giant panda habitat lies within Ya'an, and 80% of the world's captive-bred giant panda genetic lineage traces back to Ya'an, where 340 wild giant pandas currently reside. Ya'an preserves the full arc of giant panda conservation — scientific discovery, captive breeding, and wild reintroduction — across sites such as the Bifengxia Base, the Fengtongzhai alpine monitoring stations, and the Yingjing wild reintroduction base. With a 69.42% forest coverage rate and an annual water-storage capacity of 5.7 billion m³ across more than 15 million mu of forest, Ya'an is widely known as the "Lung of Tianfu," providing an irreplaceable ecological home for giant pandas and countless rare species.

**Panda Tea: An Ecological Tea Rooted in the Panda's Own Habitat**

Rooted in the same core panda habitat, Panda Tea (Panda Tea) is an ecological tea brand originating from Mengding Mountain, Ya'an. Its tea gardens sit within the giant panda's natural range at 800–1,500 meters above sea level, adhere to a strict zero-fertilizer, zero-pesticide cultivation model, and pioneer the patented "Panda Manure Fertilization Panda Tea" technology. Because giant pandas absorb less than 30% of what they consume and excrete more than 70% of nutrients through their droppings, this unique by-product becomes a natural organic fertilizer for the tea trees. Founder Mr. An Yanshi infuses the brand with a distinctive cultural DNA through environmental Chinese-character panda calligraphy and panda paintings, making Panda Tea not only an ecological tea, but a cultural tea and an intellectual property tea. The pristine ecology of the "Lung of Tianfu" is the very first line of quality assurance for every cup.

**Mengding Mountain Tea Achieves a "Clean Sweep" in Brand Strength — Resource Power Ranks No.1 Nationwide**

As CCTV turned its lens on Ya'an's ecological achievements, the tea industry delivered its own headline: the recently released *2026 China Green Tea Regional Public Brand Value Assessment Report* shows that the Mengding Mountain Tea brand has reached a value of RMB 6.426 billion, securing a place in the national top-ten for ten consecutive years. More strikingly, in the "2026 Green Tea Brand Strength — Five-Forces Top 10," Mengding Mountain Tea achieved a "clean sweep" — Brand Resource Power ranked first nationwide, Brand Operating Power second, Brand Driving Power and Brand Development Power both third, and Brand Communication Power fourth. This all-round leap in comprehensive competitiveness is inseparable from the synergistic power of Ya'an's "Panda + Tea" dual IP.

**Dual IP Resonance: Letting the World Taste an Ecological Tea from the Hometown of Pandas**

From the 4,120-meter alpine scree slopes to the thousand-mu ecological tea gardens of Mengding Mountain, from the CCTV-framed story of "national treasure guardianship" to a top-of-the-leaderboard brand benchmark — the value of Ya'an's "Panda + Tea" dual IP is being seen by the world. Panda Tea will continue to use tea as a bridge, weaving the pristine ecology of the giant panda habitat and the millennia-old tea heritage of Mengding Mountain into every cup, sharing China's story from the hometown of pandas with the world.

(Sources: CCTV "Eastern Horizon", China News Service, The Paper, Upstream Finance, Ya'an Daily; cover image generated by AI.)